uc-fffibL. 


B4EENT 

and 

CHILD 

by 

SIR  OLIVER 
LODGE, 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


PARENT   AND   CHILD 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 

A    TREATISE    ON    THE    MORAL 

AND  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  OF 

CHILDREN 


By 
SIR  OLIVER  LODGE,  D.Sc.,  F.R.S. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1910 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


It* 


COPYRIGHT,  1910,  BY 

FUNK  &   WAGNALLS   COMPANY 

[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America] 

Published  September,  1910 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  CHILD  NATURE 7 

II.  PARENTAL  INFLUENCE   ....  13 

III.  IMPARTING  OF  KNOWLEDGE     .    .  23 

IV.  PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE  ....  31 
V.  PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE     .    .  39 

VI.  PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE    .  49 

VII.  PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION    .    .  65 


[5] 


217052 


OF  THS 
UNIVERSITY  i 


PARENT    AND    CHILD 


CHILD  NATURE 

THE  first  thing  to  realize  about 
children  is  that  they  are  sepa- 
rate individuals,  not  merely  chips  of 
the  old  block.  Chips  of  the  old  block 
they  are  too,  no  doubt,  but  what  par- 
ents sometimes  forget  is  that  they 
are  separate  persons,  each  with  a 
life  and  destiny  of  its  own.  It  is 
therefore  quite  possible,  not  only  that 
the  child  may  not  understand  us,  but 

that    we    may    not   understand    the 

•i 

child. 

[7] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


The  individuality  thus  isolated  in 
a  child  is  not  always  good !  Certain- 
ly not.  There  can  be,  I  presume,  as 
many  grades  among  children  as 
among  adults.  The  range  seems  to 
extend  over  the  whole  gamut,  from 
something  very  like  angels  to  some- 
thing barely  distinguishable  from 
devils.  The  nearly  angelic  is  fortu- 
nately the  more  common  variety,  and 
I  shall  assume, — what  may  be  true, — 
that  all  children  who  are  given  a  de- 
cent chance  in  life,  both  by  ancestry 
and  by  nurture,  will  respond  to  judi- 
cious treatment  and  be  a  credit  to 
their  home  and  upbringing. 

I  think  it  more  helpful  to  empha- 
size the  essential  goodness  of  human 
nature  than  its  essential  badness. 
[8] 


CHILD  NATURE 


There  must  be  phenomena  which 
have  led  theologians  to  formulate  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin,  but  there 
must  be  at  least  equal  and  I  think  far 
greater  truth  in  the  more  authorita- 
tive statement,  applied  to  typical  chil- 
dren, that  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

I  have  been  astounded,  occasion- 
ally even  appalled,  at  the  innate 
goodness  of  some  children, — children 
who  have  come  under  my  own  ob- 
servation. And,  holding  views  which 
I  have  elsewhere  expressed  as  to  the 
nature  of  incarnation,  it  has  some- 
times struck  me  as  an  extraordinary 
privilege  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
care  of  beings  of  so  much  interest 
and  charm.  They  seem  like  guests 
[9] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


who  have  done  us  the  honor  of  se- 
lecting our  home  and  friendship  for 
a  momentous  epoch  in  their  lives. 
Such  children  are  exceptional,  how- 
ever, and  one  does  come  across  some 
whose  behaviour  arouses  feelings  of 
repulsion. 

How  comes  it,  I  wonder,  that  chil- 
dren can  occasionally  be  so  objection- 
able? I  think  it  is  because  they  have 
never  been  taught  any  consideration 
for  others. 

In  hotels,  for  instance,  we  some- 
times encounter  a  family  of  children, 
or  it  may  be  a  single  child,  that 
shouts  and  romps  as  if  other  people 
did  not  exist.  The  cosmopolitan 
child  perhaps  it  is,  who, — so  to  speak, 
for  generations, — has  never  been  to 

[10] 


CHILD  NATURE 


school  nor  subjected  to  any  sort  of 
training.  I  have  been  told  that  on 
the  South  American  boats  there  are 
family  cabins,  and  that  from  these 
cabins  the  amount  of  shrill  noise 
which  arises,  in  the  course  appar- 
ently of  normal  family  life,  is  more 
than  perturbing  to  fellow  travellers. 
With  such  bringing  up,  no  wonder  I 
that  people  can  be  obnoxious. 

How  comes  it,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  children  of  the  English  aris- 
tocracy, while  still  barely  out  of  the 
nursery,  are  often  so  admirably  be- 
haved? The  few  that  I  have  known 
have  been  helpful  and  considerate 
and  anxious  to  do  little  services  for 
strangers  and  visitors.  People  say 
that  such  children  are  left  largely  to 
[11] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


nurses;  if  so,  some  of  the  nurses 
must  be  excellent  women.  I  expect 
they  are;  and  I  think  that  the  pro- 
verbial nagging  of  the  ordinary 
nurse-maid,  as  heard  in  the  parks  for 
instance,  is  becoming  much  less  pro- 
nounced than  it  used  to  be.  All  this 
is  making  in  a  right  direction. 


[12] 


II 

PARENTAL  INFLUENCE 

PARENTS  who  are  strenuously 
busy  or  occupied  in  public  work 
may  comfort  themselves  by  remem- 
bering that  parental  influence  may  be 
indirect,  and  that  a  life  of  vivid  ac- 
tivity has  before  now  affected  chil-< 
dren  beneficially  without  specific  ef- 
fort,— sometimes  with  results  even 
better  than  have  been  attained  by 
constant  attention  specially  directed 
to  that  end.  Indeed,  specially  directed 
attention  requires  wisdom  and  self- 
mistrustful  thought,  lest  occasionally 
it  may  do  more  harm  than  good. 
Over-attention  may  be  destructive  of ] 
[13] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


originality,  and  may  tend  to  check 
healthy  unconscious  growth.  The 
brooding  and  meditative  moods  of 
children  should  be  respected;  the 
stress  of  practical  life  terminates 
them  quickly  enough,  for  all  save  a 
few  favoured  persons.  And  the  fact 
I  that  they  may  be  luxuriously  culti- 
vated, or  indulged  in  to  excess,  should 
not  be  allowed  to  break  them  up  al- 
together ;  nor  should  energetic  super- 
visors feel  justified  in  applying  con- 
stant stimulus  during  any  incubating 
and  preparatory  period;  for  those 
moods  and  periods  have  been  proved 
ultimately  to  have  productive  value. 
Nevertheless,  however  busy  par- 
ents are,  some  direct  parental  in- 
fluence should  be  exerted,  for  it  may 

[14] 


PARENTAL  INFLUENCE 

be  of  incalculable  value.  Children 
have  an  instinctive  sense  for  reality 
of  conviction,  they  have  a  knack  of 
penetrating  to  what  people  really  are, 
so  that  mere  convention  and  what 
are  called  pious  opinions  carry  but 
little  weight.  Much  can  be  accom- 
plished by  good  nursery  traditions; 
notably  training  in  consideration  for 
others,  modesty,  helpfulness,  rever- 
ence for  elders,  and  self-subordina- 
tion; great  things  which  no  one  now 
addressed  is  likely  to  overlook.  A 
minor  thing  is  tidiness, — not  to  the 
extent  of  not  making  a  litter,  but  of 
not  leaving  it;  especially  the  habit  of 
putting  things  back  where  found,  the 
automatic  replacement  of  any  object 
of  common  property, — clothes-brush, 
[15] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


\   5 


ball  of  string,  time-table,  books  of 
reference,  or  what  not, — in  its  proper 
place,  so  that  others  can  find  it. 
Hunting  about  for  such  things  is  an 
entire  waste  of  time.  I  attach  con- 
siderable importance  to  this  leaving 
things  where  you  find  them,  and 
clearing  up  litter. 

Adults,  if  busy,  and  school-chil- 
dren, sometimes  may  have  to  clear 
up  by  deputy;  but  if  small  children 
are  too  much  waited  on,  and  every- 
thing put  away  by  others,  it  has,  I 
believe,  a  demoralizing  effect.  It  is 
one  cause  of  the  selfishness  of  the  bet- 
ter-off classes  that  they  are  constant- 
ly making  a  mess  and  leaving  it  to 
others  to  put  straight.  Press  of  work 
often  necessitates  this;  but  it  should 
[16] 


PARENTAL  INFLUENCE 

be  recognized  as  a  responsibility,  and 
not  merely  a  matter  of  course,  that 
we  daily  leave  a  meal-room  or  a  bed- 
room in  a  state  in  which  we  should 
be  annoyed  to  find  it  on  our  return. 

Work  is  a  sufficient  excuse, — -wei 
have  other  things  to  do,  and  it  con- 
stitutes a  permissible  division  of  la- 
bour ;  but  if  we  have  not  other  things 
to  do,  if  we  are  idle  habitually,  as 
are  some  children  and  many  adults, 
then  I  conceive  that  it  would  be  a 
wholesomer  and  sounder  discipline  if 
we  spent  some  time  in  clearing  up 
after  ourselves.  The  lounging  and 
luxurious  behaviour  of  some  spec- 
imens of  the  overfed  youthful  male; 
as  caricatured  in  the  pages  of  Punch, 
for  instance,  is  truly  objectionable; 
[17] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


and  it  is  melancholy  to  reflect  that 
parental  influence  may  enable  such 
spoiled  young  reprobates  to  control 
affairs  in  some  corner  of  the  em- 
pire. Though,  indeed,  it  is  true 
that  stress  of  circumstances  does  then 
make  men  of  some  of  them;  but  it  is 
stress  and  not  laxity  that  does  it. 
The  laxity,  so  far  as  it  went,  was 
wholly  bad. 

Another  valuable  piece  of  nursery 
or  home  tradition  is  the  delivery  of 
messages  in  exact  words.  This  is  a 
matter  to  which  I  attach  importance, 
— it  is  a  sort  of  beginning  of  scien- 
tific training.  A  child  sent  on  a  mes- 
sage should  not  be  allowed  to  para- 
phrase it  and  deliver  something  there 
or  thereabouts.  A  message  so 
[18] 


PARENTAL  INFLUENCE 

changed  is  nearly  always  misleading 
and  frequently  gives  trouble.  A 
child  entrusted  with  a  message, 
whether  it  be  to  the  cook  or  the 
gardener  or  what  not,  should  first 
have  it  delivered  to  him  precisely  and 
should  repeat  it  before  starting,  and 
should  then  go  and  give  it  without 
attending  to  anything  by  the  way.  I 
have  known  servant  troubles  arise 
through  the  inaccurate  delivery  of 
messages,  especially  if  a  return  mes- 
sage has  to  be  brought;  for  the 
slightest  alteration  may  easily  con- 
vert a  polite  request  or  acknowledg- 
ment into  something  offensive, — and 
this  without  any  hostile  intention  on 
the  part  of  the  messenger.  In  larger 
life  the  same  sort  of  thing  has  before 
[19] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


now  brought  about  wars.  But,  quite 
apart  from  consequences,  the  recol- 
lection and  reproduction  of  exact 
words  is  an  art  in  itself,  and  as 
every  person  of  literary  sensitiveness 
knows,  is  an  eminently  desirable 
aptitude,  for  it  leads  to  accuracy 
in  the  quotation  of  poetry  or  prose 
later  on. 

Children  like  being  made  use  of, 
and  an  errand  is  an  opportunity  to 
make  them  feel  their  responsibility 
and  take  trouble  to  execute  a  com- 
mission in  an  exact  manner;  first  re- 
peating, naturally  and  as  a  matter  of 
course,  what  it  is  they  have  to  do  or 
say,  so  as  to  be  sure  that  there  is  no 
mistake.  I  venture  to  maintain, 
moreover,  that  it  is  a  training  not  un- 
[20] 


PARENTAL  INFLUENCE 

needed  by  many  adults,  to  have  to 
state  accurately  what  is  wanted,  to 
describe  the  locality  of  a  thing  pre- 
cisely, and  to  instruct  a  messenger 
clearly. 

In  the  cases  when  a  child  really 
understands  what  is  wanted  to  be 
said,  it  is  excellent  practice  to  let  him 
try  to  put  it  clearly  in  his  own  words. 
To  concoct  a  telegram,  for  instance, 
that  will  be  clear  and  definite,  not 
long-winded,  and  yet  not  capable  of 
misconstruction;  or  to  formulate  his 
own  message  before  delivering  it. 


[21] 


Ill 

IMPARTING  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

ANOTHER  thing  that  is  due  to 
children  is  that  they  should  be 
told  as  far  as  possible  the  exact  truth, 
when  they  ask  a  serious  question.  It 
is  not  easy  to  do  this,  because  the 
truth  as  they  receive  it  will  depend 
on  their  faculty  of  apprehension ;  but 
if  they  know  enough  to  ask  a  ques- 
tion, an  answer,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
received  by  them,  should  be  true. 
The  answerer  should  always  try  to 
put  himself  in  the  questioner's  place, 
and  look  at  things  from  his  point  of. 
view:  this  is  the  essence  of  clear  ex- 
planation. There  may  still  be  misun- 

[23] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


derstandings,  but  these  can  be  de- 
tected and  removed  by  a  little  con- 
versation, and  the  original  statement 
can  be  amended  accordingly.  I  find 
that  if  children  know  that  parents 
take  pains  to  inform  them  with  care- 
ful accuracy  as  to  any  little  thing  on 
which  they  ask  a  question,  and  if 
they  are  themselves  never  suspected 
N  of  saying  anything  but  what  they  be- 
lieve to  be  true,  so  far  as  they  can, 
then  they  will  acquire  instinctively  a 
faculty  for  truthful  statement,  and 
the  repulsive  habit  of  lying  need 
never  even  begin  to  form. 

Telling  the  truth  is  largely  a  mat- 
ter of  culture  and  education.  Ig- 
norant people  often  tell  something 
else,  either  because  it  is  lazier  and 

[24] 


IMPARTING  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

easier  to  do  so,  or  because  they  think 
it  pleasanter,  or  simply  because  they 
have  not  accustomed  their  minds  to 
consider  what  the  "truth"  of  any- 
thing is. 

A  child,  too,  sometimes  romances 
or  exaggerates  in  an  innocent  man- 
ner through  excess  of  imagination. 
This  should  not  be  taken  too  serious- 
ly, and  sometimes  the  thing  said  may 
have  a  subjective  truth  of  its  own 
which  an  unsympathetic  or  hard- 
pressed  senior  can  hardly  appreciate. 
Instances  of  this  sort  are,  I  believe, 
not  infrequent,  and  it  is  well  to  make 
large  allowance;  but  in  cases  where 
there  is  no  doubt,  a  child  can  grad- 
ually be  brought  to  see  that  to  say 
the  thing  that  is  not  is  to  put  itself 
[25] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


out  of  harmony  with  the  universe. 
A  statement  which  is  contrary  to 
fact  should  be  non-existent.  There 
is  no  sense  in  it. 

It  is  true  that  adults  often  know 
too  little  to  answer  children's  ques- 
tions, or  to  give  exact  information. 
Parenthood  needs  training  for,  like 
everything  else.  But  confessions  of 
ignorance  are  wholesome :  and  at  any 
rate  deliberate  falseness  can  be  avoid- 
ed. The  worst  kind  of  lies  which 
children  can  be  told  are  those  that 
lead  to  fright  and  superstition.  Chil- 
dren are  newcomers  to  the  planet, 
they  cannot  know  by  experience  that 
it  is,  on  the  whole,  a  pleasant  and 
friendly  place;  and  if  told  that  all 
sorts  of  horrors  abound  and  are 
[26] 


\ 


IMPARTING  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

lurking  for  them  round  the  corner, 
what  can  they  do  but  believe  the 
statement?  until  experience  shows 
that  it  was  an  abominable  invention. 

Superstitions  again,  —  children 
would  hardly  invent  them,  and  they 
might  die  a  natural  death,  were  it  not 
that  they  are  handed  down  by  each 
generation  to  the  next.  I  do  beg 
people  to  be  satisfied  with  having  had 
the  incubus  of  meaningless  rubbish 
transmitted  to  them;  let  them  now 
cut  off  the  entail. 

What  frightens  some  children  is 
loneliness.  Their  loneliness  can  be  a 
severe  ordeal.  Real  loneliness,  lone- 
liness in  the  universe,  such  as  none 
of  us  have  ever  experienced,  would 
be  perhaps  the  most  alarming  and 
[27] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


desperate  sensation  that  man  could 
have.  The  providential  arrangement 
of  parents  and  guardians  keeps  the 
loneliness  of  infancy  far  from  that, 
but  nevertheless  it  is  real  and  alarm- 
ing at  times ;  it  is  the  loneliness  of  in- 
carnation, it  is  the  isolation  of  the 
body.  Mind  unites,  body  separates, 
or  individualizes.  Infants  are  be- 
ginning to  be  partitioned  off  from 
the  surrounding  mental  and  spiritual 
whole,  and  encased  in  a  body;  they 
are  undergoing  the  process  of  indi- 
vidualization ;  they  may  well  feel  as 
if  no  one  here  understood  them,  and 
they  are  necessarily  lonely.  They 
seldom  confess  to  it,  nor  are  they 
capable  of  putting  the  idea  into 
words.  Persons  cannot  prevent  this 
[28] 


IMPARTING  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

feeling  from  cropping  up  at  times, 
nor  is  it  desirable  that  they  should 
prevent  it,  but  they  can  understand 
and  be  sympathetic  and  not  blatant 
and  superficial  and  bullying  about  it. 
If  a  child  for  a  time  dislikes  going 
to  sleep  in  the  dark,  or  wishes  its 
door  ajar, — yield  to  it.  The  dread 
will  soon  pass,  if  not  artificially  fos- 
tered or  made  much  of.  A  child 
ought  not  to  have  to  confess  in 
words  to  his  fear, — that  only  tends 
to  make  it  more  real  and  lasting.  He 
will  grow  out  of  it.  And,  after  all, 
this  feeling  of  helplessness  in  an  un- 
known and  mysterious  universe  is 
very  natural.  The  universe  is  big 
and  mysterious  and  most  alarming. 
Custom  gradually  makes  its  ordinary 
[29] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


friendly  aspects  familiar,  while  its 
more  portentous  manifestations  are 
found  to  be  exceptional ;  but  they  are 
there,  behind  the  scenes,  and  it  is 
just  the  exceptional  and  the  por- 
tentous of  which  we  are  instinctively 
afraid. 

Children's  terrors  are  just  as  real 
as  the  horrible  dread  sometimes  ex- 
perienced by  grown-up  people, — 
dread  which  they,  too,  learn  to  over- 
come, and  of  which  they  are  ashamed, 
but  to  which  the  necessity  of  yielding, 
in  some  sudden  emergency,  is  found 
even  by  heroes  at  times  to  be  irre- 
sistible. 


[30] 


IV 

PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE 

AND  now  to  enter  upon  larger 
topics : 

Preparation  of  the  child  for  in-  , 
dividual  life, — this  is  the  main  object  j 
of  education.    And  its  chief  aim  must ; 
surely  be  the  formation  of   a  per-; 
sonal  character,  a  will,  the  separate ; 
individuality  of  a  free  being.     The' 
faculty  of  acquiring    and    worthily 
utilizing  real  freedom, — that  is  the 
object  of  education.    And  to  this  end 
self-discipline,     self-control,     is     the 
[31] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


main  factor.  The  child  arrives,  a 
fragment  of  undifferentiated  mind- 
stuff,  with  potentialities  and  inherited 
powers,  to  begin  an  individual  ex- 
istence. Not  to  begin  existence, — 
that  nothing  that  we  know  of  ever 
does, — but  to  begin  an  individual  ex- 
istence, to  begin  as  a  separate  unit 
of  life  and  mind,  to  grow  a  character 
and  reap  a  destiny. 

Control  of  attention  is  the  first  step 
toward  this  end.  Not  to  be  distracted 
by  every  passing  sight  and  sound. 
To  concentrate  the  mind  on  one  ob- 
ject, without  regard  to  every  butter- 
fly distraction  that  flits  across  the 
field  of  view. 

The  task  is  difficult,  and  adults 
must  be  patient.  Some  of  them 
[32] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE 

have  not  learned  concentration  them- 
selves. 

But  control  of  attention  can  be 
cultivated, — its  entire  absence  is  a 
well-known  medical  criterion  of  fee- 
ble-mindedness, — many  things  need 
not  be  attended  to,  side  issues  and  de- 
flecting suggestions  must  be  ignored. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  do  or  to  utter 
everything  that  crops  up  in  the  mind. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  do  everything 
that  occurs  to  you  to  do.  Quite  a 
small  effort  of  attention  will  show 
that  the  suggestion  is  very  likely  a 
mere  device  of  distraction.  Though 
there  are  cases, — as  when  a  question 
arises  whether  a  letter  ought  to  be 
written  or  not, — when  the  unpleasant 
path  is  the  wisest, — the  course  which 
[33] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


best  fits  our  total  scheme.  The  mo- 
tive power  ebbs  and  flows,  as  Mat- 
thew Arnold  says: 

We  cannot  kindle  when  we  will 

The  fire  which  in  the  heart  resides; 
The  spirit  bloweth  and  is  still, 
In  mystery  our  soul  abides. 
But  tasks  in  hours  of  insight  will'd 
Can  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfill'd. 

All  this  is  part  of  the  creation  of  a 
wrill.  It  is  the  essence  of  self-deter- 
mination  to  carry  through  a  purpose, 
undeterred  by  the  golden  apples  that 
a  competitor  or  a  spectator  may 
throw  beside  your  path.  This  power 
of  self-determination  is  essential  to 
freedom.  Fulfilment  of  a  definite  and 
prescribed  task, — at  first,  indeed,  pre- 
134] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE 

scribed  by  others,  but  later  by  your- 
self; prescribed,  that  is,  by  the  whole 
intelligence  and  purpose  of  your 
being, — this  is  what  is  meant  by  a 
dependable  trustworthy  character, 
one  that  can  be  counted  on  to  do 
what  it  decides  to  do,  one  that  is  not 
at  the  mercy  of  whims  and  random 
impulses,  one  that  has  overcome 
caprice  and  is  able  to  reject  tempta- 
tion and  is  not  a  creature  of  impulses 
nor  the  slave  of  anything  but  its  own 
will. 

That  is  freedom,  when  you  act  in  ' 
accordance  with  your  own  will,  and 
are  not  driven  hither  and  thither  by 
every  passing  impulse.  The  evil- 
doer, as  Plato  in  the  "Gorgias"  lays 
down,  the  evil-doer  is  a  slave,— a 
[35] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


1  slave  it  may  be  of  his  own  vices, 
which  he  has  allowed  to  get  the  up- 
per hand. 

For  liberty  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  license, — and  it  is  only  when 
the  nature  has  risen  to  a  certain 
height  of  development  that  it  can  be 
trusted  with  the  reins.  Until  that 
stage  is  reached  it  must  be  controlled 
from  outside.  But  when  that  stage 
is  really  reached  the  whole  being  re- 
sponds joyously  to  the  demands  upon 
its  powers,  and  act  and  will  run  har- 
moniously together. 

This  is  the  flower  of  self-control, 
this  is  the  service  that  is  perfect  free- 
dom. Few  are  the  happy  dispositions 
who  attain  the  state  without  effort, 
but  in  some  children  it  is  found, — 
[36] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LIFE 

"glad  hearts/'  as  Wordsworth  says 
in  the  "Ode  to  Duty/5 

Glad  hearts!  without  reproach  or  blot; 
Who  do  thy  work  and  know  it  not. 

But  for  the  most  part  we  have  to 
learn  through  effort  how  to  be 

No   sport  of   every   random   gust. 

and  only  after  error  and  remorse  do 
we  attain  to  the  state 

When  love  is  an  unerring  light, 
And  joy  its  own  security. 

But  in  so  far  as  the  happy  docile 
child-spirit  can  from  the  first  be  en- 
couraged and  prolonged, — in  so  far 
as  it  can  be  assumed,  and  assumed 
with  truth,  that  the  child-will  is 
right,  and  that  only  the  flesh  is  oc- 
[37] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


casionally  weak, — so  far  shall  we  be 
able  to  recognize  in  childhood,  and 
ultimately  in  the  now  too  scarred  face 
of  humanity,  that  which  we  are  as- 
sured is  really  there,  though  hidden : 

The  Godhead's  most  benignant  grace. 

"Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  in- 
fancy." Yes,  truly,  but  why  only  in 
our  infancy?  Verily,  I  believe,  be- 
cause we  have  effectually  prevented 
anything  like  "heaven"  from  sur- 
rounding the  infancy  of  so  many  of 
the  human  race  to-day. 

The  earth  is  full  of  darkness  and  cruel  habitations. 

So  our  vision  is  darkened,  too,  and 
the  ministry  of  benevolence  is  hidden 
from  our  gaze. 

[38] 


V 
PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE 

BUT  I  must  check  an  incipient  di- 
gression and  now  say  a  word 
or  two  on  more  technical  teaching, — 
what  has  been  called  "the  prepara- 
tion of  the  child  for  science." 

The  inquisitiveness  of  children 
should  be  utilized  as  an  opportunity 
for  providing  them  with  information. 
When  they  are  hungry,  then  they 
should  be  fed, — if  possible  by  teach- 
ers who  are  informed  themselves.  It 
is  easier  to  answer  questions  badly 
than  to  answer  them  well;  the  appe- 
tite for  information  is  most  valuable, 

[39] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


but  it  is  sometimes  supplied  with 
wretched  food.  Every  effort  should 
be  made  to  get  the  facts  right,  to  un- 
derstand them  properly;  but  how 
great  a  demand  this  is,  only  those 
who  have  had  some  training  in 
science  can  be  aware. 

The  next  best  thing  is  to  confess 
ignorance  and  offer  to  try  and  worry 
out  an  answer  together.  The  dis- 
covery that  adults,  too,  are  ignorant, 
and  that  there  are  ways  of  hunting 
up  information, — especially  the  way 
by  experiment  and  first-hand  obser- 
vation,— is  stimulating,  and  abun- 
dantly wholesome. 

In  teaching  a  new  subject,  I  would 
that  parents  could  distinguish  be- 
tween essential  features  and  sub- 
[40] 


PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE 

sidiary  details.  A  bad  kind  of  in- 
struction overloads  the  mind  with  de- 
tail before  the  main  features  have 
been  grasped;  i.e.,  before  there  is  any 
framework  into  which  to  pack  the 
details.  This  is  most  discouraging. 
It  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  gradually 
generates  a  dislike  of  being  taught, — 
a  dislike  unnatural  to  a  healthy  child. 
Grammar  and  arithmetic,  in  the 
hands  of  an  incompetent  teacher,  are 
familiar  instruments  for  generating 
this  dislike. 

Every  subject  can  be  presented  in 
such  a  way  as  to  be  received  with  en- 
thusiasm by  an  intelligent  child 
whose  mind  has  not  already  been 
clogged  or  warped. 

Instruction    should    not    be    arti- 

[41] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


ficially  systematic.  System  is  ex- 
cellent in  its  proper  place;  but  the 
bare  facts  must  be  approached  first; 
the  learner  must  be  immersed  in  them 
to  begin  with,  in  a  real  practical  way, 
without  rules  and  conventions.  Noth- 
ing but  practice  will  make  a  subject 
familiar;  and  during  the  practice  a 
"rule"  here  and  there, — that  is  a  con- 
venient summing  up  of  the  results 
of  experience, — may  be  thrown  in; 
if  possible  at  a  moment  when  it  will 
be  welcomed  and  assimilated. 

The  same  method  should  govern 
preliminary  instruction  in  nature. 
Eschew  what  is  called  systematic 
science-teaching  till  a  later  stage; 
utilize  at  first  children's  natural  in- 
terest in  phenomena.  Immerse  them 

[42] 


PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE 

in  phenomena,  and  let  them  find  their 
way  through ;  assisted,  but  not  car- 
ried. Let  them  observe  and  think, 
and  themselves  try  to  explain.  The 
effort  to  explain  even  the  simplest 
thing  is  wholly  good,  both  for  teach- 
ers and  taught.  And,  for  taught,  a 
self-devised  incomplete  explanation  is 
better  than  a  more  elaborate  one 
which  they  do  not  perceive  the  need 
for.  For  a  time  the  incomplete  ex- 
planation can  be  left;  then  holes  can 
be  picked  in  it, — if  possible  by  things 
themselves, — and  so  it  can  be  grad- 
ually improved,  until  ultimately  a 
more  perfect  model  of  an  explanation 
may  be  told  them;  but  not  before  its 
merits  can  be  to  some  extent  appre- 
ciated. 

[43] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


Occasionally  there  are  legitimate 
exceptions,  and  carefully  worded 
formula  may  be  learned,  of  which  the 
full  meaning  will  only  gradually 
dawn.  No  one  method  should  ex- 
clude others.  Teaching  is  an  art 
well  worthy  of  study.  To  some  few 
it  is  an  instinct, — to  others  an  ac- 
quired art;  but  alas!  to  many  who 
profess  to  be  teachers,  the  skill  is, 
or  used  to  be,  conspicuous  by  its  ab- 
sence; the  children  suffer,  and  all 
who  have  subsequently  to  do  with 
them  have  to  suffer  too, — right  away 
up  to  the  university,  and  beyond  it, 
in  life. 

A  quantity  of  things  can  be  taught 
rather  by  way  of  questions  than  by 
direct  instruction.  Questions  can  be 

[44] 


PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE 

propounded,  with  time  allowed  for 
brooding  and  thinking  over  them, — 
not  minutes,  I  mean,  but  days. 

In  geometry,  for  instance,  con- 
structions can  be  invented  by  a  pupil ; 
the  subject  can  be  begun  as  a  game,  a 
series  of  interesting  puzzles, — a  very 
few  at  a  time,  even  if  easy,  so  as  not 
to  be  wearisome.  Spencer's  "Inven- 
tional  Geometry"  is  a  little  book  that 
is  of  assistance  to  elementary  teach- 
ers. Things  self-discovered  are  en- 
shrined, and  hold  a  place  in  the  mind 
far  more  secure  than  things  merely 
hooked  on  outside. 

Interest  may  be  killed  by  prema-j 
ture  systematic  instruction.     Infor- 
mation concerning  things  of  no  inter- 
est is  valueless  information.    Curios- 
[45] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


ity  should  first  be  aroused.  The 
preparation  of  the  mind  for  acquiring 
or  cultivating  knowledge  is  far 
more  valuable  than  packing  it  with 
facts.  The  process  of  education, — as 
I  have  elsewhere  said, — is  not  like 
packing  things  into  a  portmanteau, 
but  like  stocking  a  pond  with  fish. 
The  healthy  mind  is  itself  alive  and 
active;  and  if  time  be  given,  the 
produce  of  the  pond,  as  tested  by 
fisherman  or  examiner,  may  far  ex- 
ceed the  original  supply. 

Another  thing  the  teacher  should 
realize  is  the  difference  between  the 
real  and  the  conventional.  Names 
are  conventional,  weights  and  meas- 
ures are  conventional,  many  of  the 
[46] 


PREPARATION  FOR  SCIENCE 

devices  of  language  are  conventional. 
To  test  convention,  one  has  only  to 
bethink  oneself  whether  a  statement 
is  applicable  only  to  England  or  to 
every  country  in  the  world.  Some 
things  are  true  throughout  the  uni- 
verse, some  things  true  only  for  the 
planet.  Things  that  are  true  every- 
where and  for  all  time  are  clearly 
worthy  of  thorough  apprehension. 
Some  things  are  true  both  here  and 
hereafter,  —  beyond  these  present 
bounds  of  time  and  place, — these  are 
the  most  vital  of  all. 

It  would  surely  interest  a  child  to 

bethink  himself  whether  a  fact  is  true 

in  one  of  these  senses  or  in  the  other, 

— valid  here  and  now,  or  valid  sem- 

[47] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


per  ubique  et  ab  omnibus.  It  is  an 
educative  idea,  too,  in  after  life,  and 
one  not  too  common.  It  tends  auto- 
matically to  arrange  things  in  some 
sort  of  order  of  importance. 


[48] 


VI 
PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

SO  far  I  have  emphasized  one  side 
of  training, — what  may  be  called 
the  more  scientific  side.     If  I  leave 
it  without  balance,  I  shall  be  convey- 
ing an  exceedingly  false  impression 
of  what  I  intend.     Any  unbalanced 
and  one-sided  system  will  have  un- 
toward results,   but  because   I   em- 
phasize one  side,  I  am  not  intending 
to  advocate  exclusive  attention  to  that 
side ;  there  are  plenty  of  others.  And 
now  I  come  to  the  more  literary  side. 
Let  it  never  be  thought  that  I  ad- 
yocate  the  curbing  and  correcting  of 
[49] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


childish  grammar  and  infantile  lan- 
guage. On  the  contrary,  I  regard 
untutored  modes  of  expression  as  of 
interest  and  value.  Here  is  scope  for 
originality  and  self-manifestation. 

Grammar  is  a  conventional  mould 
into  which  we  must  fit  in  due  time, 
but  into  which  we  are  by  no  means 
born.  Some  initial  freedom  in  this 
respect  is  essential  to  character.  Pre- 
cision of  intention  is  one  thing, 
grammatical  correctness  another. 
The  latter  comes  with  years,  the 
former  may  begin  in  infancy.  A 
child  with  a  stomach-ache  will  not 
say  the  pain  is  in  its  toe,  however 
little  language  it  may  possess. 

To  correct  childish  grammatical 
errors  prematurely  is  worrying  and 
[50] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

most  unwise;  it  deprives  a  child  of 
naturalness,  and  adults  of  some 
pleasure.  If  small  twins,  for  in- 
stance, having  a  joint  birthday,  are 
asked  whose  birthday  it  is;  and  if 
after  looking  at  each  other  for  a  mo- 
ment they  simultaneously  respond 
"we's,"  any  one  who  would  attempt 
to  correct  the  statement  into  ac- 
cordance with  the  rules  of  English 
grammar  would  be  guilty  of  a  minor 
kind  of  blasphemy.  This  parable 
summarizes  all  I  have  to  say  on  that 
head. 

So  again,  in  emphasizing  truth  of 
statement  in  its  due  time  and  place, 
it  may  be  thought  that  I  am  against 
fairy  tales.  It  is  possible,  I  think,  to 
cultivate  them  to  excess;  but  to  ex- 
[51] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


elude  them  and  forbid  children  to 
hear  the  old  immortal  stories, — part 
of  the  tradition  of  the  race, — would 
be  a  literary  crime.  Appropriate 
dealing  with  different  categories  of 
things  is  largely  an  affair  of  moods. 
I  want  to  emphasize  this.  What  is 
suitable  for  one  mood  is  not  suitable 
in  another.  The  mood  and  the  sub- 
ject should  agree. 

Children  are  not  always  in  a  work- 
ing mood,  sometimes  they  are  in  a 
playing  mood,  sometimes  in  an  im- 
aginative or  make-believe  mood, 
sometimes  in  a  serious  or  inquiring 
mood.  These  moods  should  none  of 
them  be  repressed,  nor  should  they  be 
treated  all  alike.  The  right  mood 
should  be  induced,  when  necessary, 
[52] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

before  instruction;  otherwise  no 
progress  will  be  made.  In  the  inqui- 
ring mood  they  should  be  supplied 
with  fact,  i.e.,  with  something  that 
may  be  called  the  beginnings  of 
science.  In  the  imaginative  mood 
with  fairy  tales;  i.e.,  with  something 
that  can  be  called  the  beginnings  of 
literature.  The  habit  of  constantly 
asking  whether  a  thing  is  true  is  an 
uncultured  and  inappropriate  habit; 
it  means  that  the  wrong  mood  is  up- 
permost. Some  things  are  better 
than  true.  You  do  not  call  a  sunset, 
or  the  Sistine  Madonna,  or  St. 
Mark's,  Venice,  or  the  fifth  Sym- 
phony, "true."  A  cloud,  moreover, 
is  not  what  it  seems;  and,  going  up 
into  it,  you  find  it  merely  a  wet 
[53] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


drizzle.  A  rainbow  is  in  many  ways 
deceptive;  it  is  only  depicted  in  the 
eye.  A  mirage  can  be  treated  scien- 
tifically enough,  but  as  observed  it  is 
a  phantasm.  Even  the  image  in  a 
looking-glass  is  not  really  there. 
Children  must  learn  that  things  are 
not  what  they  seem,  and  that  works 
of  imagination  and  beauty  have  a 
truth  of  their  own  which  can  be  felt 
but  not  stated.  They  will  know  this 
instinctively,  they  will  not  require  to 
be  taught  it,  if  they  have  not  been 
first  taught  wrong.  True  to  nature, 
a  great  poem, — yea,  any  reasonable 
poem, — must  be.  True  to  historical 
fact,  certainly  not.  To  take  a  simple 
case,  Enoch  Arden  need  not  have 
lived.  Macbeth  is  Macbeth  without 
[54] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

any  aid  from  Scottish  history.  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  is  independent  of  Alex- 
ander Selkirk.  Hamlet  and  Othello 
are  alive  in  their  own  magnificent 
way.  It  is  the  scholar's  way;  but  it 
is  also  the  unsophisticated  child's 
way.  So  are  Red  Riding-Hood,  and 
Jack  the  Giant-Killer,  and  Don 
Quixote,  and  all  the  other  heroes, — 
they  live  in  the  memory  of  genera- 
tions. 

And  in  what  way  need  it  be  differ- 
ent with  other  legendary  characters 
of  more  historical  import?  King  Ar- 
thur, for  instance,  and  Hector,  and 
William  Tell.  Historical  they  are  in 
a  sense, — they  have  not  been  gra- 
tuitously invented,  but  their  im- 
portance does  not  rest  upon  his- 
[55] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


torical  fact.  So  it  may  be  in  more 
serious  cases.  Every  incident  in  the 
lives  of  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  need 
not  be  historically  true.  The  book 
of  Job  never  pretended  to  be  history ; 
it  has  a  superior  reality  of  its  own. 

In  some  of  these  cases  there  is  a 
genuine  historical  basis,  which  it  is 
interesting  and  it  may  be  important 
to  ascertain.  Historical  reality  is  in 
some  cases  of  the  essence  of  the  mat- 
ter. It  is  so  in  connection  with  the 
founding  of  Christianity.  I  fully  ad- 
mit, and  indeed  urge,  this.  There 
are  cases  where  it  is  vital,  but  I  am 
not  referring  to  those  now.  In  or- 
dinary historical  cases  the  evidence 
must  be  dealt  with  according  to  the 
canons  of  scientific  criticism,  but  this 

[56] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

is  no  work  for  children.  They  must 
first  take  their  history  from  author- 
ity, and  on  trust. 

Meanwhile,  if  for  a  time  they  take 
unquestioningly  as  history  narratives 
which  belong  to  a  different  category, 
no  harm  is  done.  The  youth  of  the 
race  doubtless  did  the  same,  or 
rather  did  not  ask  or  worry  about  the 
difference.  Evolutionally  children 
should  in  such  matters  go  through 
the  phases  of  the  past,  and  their 
course  need  not  be  hurried.  To  con- 
fuse them  with  rationalistic  interpre- 
tation and  criticism,  to  superpose 
modern  explanatory  conceptions  on 
the  plain  tale  of  a  mythology,  at  least 
to  insist  on  such  explanations  pre- 
maturely, may  be  iconoclastic  and 
[57] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


rather  stupid.  There  is  plenty  of  the 
only  truth  of  value  in  ancient  and 
long  surviving  legends, — else  they 
would  not  have  survived. 

The  histories  of  the  Creation  and 
the  Fall  of  Man,  properly  under- 
stood, are  legends  of  profound  truth, 
— truth  to  human  nature, — and  it  is 
only  a  shallow  sciolism  that  has  tried 
to  place  them  in  the  region  of  things 
that  must  be  questioned.  Works  of 
art  are  not  to  be  scrutinized  in  terms 
of  a  rigid  literalness;  in  these  mat- 
ters it  is  preeminently  true  that  the 
letter  killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life. 
The  whole  truth  in  such  matters  is 
far  beyond  us,  even  yet.  We  are 
still  developing,  still  only  in  the 
morning  of  the  times.  Read  in  the 
[58] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

light  of  Evolution,  and  with  a  de- 
veloped historical  sense,  the  litera- 
ture of  the  growth  of  humanity 
toward  a  worthy  conception  of  Deity, 
— a  conception  always  growing  but 
still  infinitely  and  forever  below 
reality, — the  record  of  its  early 
struggles  and  mistakes  and  well- 
meant  gropings  after  truth,  espe- 
cially the  history  of  the  religious  de- 
velopment of  that  people  whose  in- 
stinct for  religion  blossomed  and 
bore  fruit  even  in  the  darkest  ages  of 
mankind,  is  full  of  interest  and  in- 
struction. Read  as  an  infallible 
theological  treatise  concerning  the 
varying  ways  of  God  to  man, — it  is 
confusing,  puzzling,  and  immoral. 
Read  as  a  history  of  the  developing 
[59] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


response  of  man  to  God, — its  mis- 
conceptions are  pathetic,  its  inspira- 
tions are  sublime.  Here  we  have  ut- 
terances of  the  wise  and  illuminated 
among  mankind,  embedded  in  a  most 
human  document,  and  preserved  for 
us  in  splendid  language  by  the  de- 
voted labours  of  scholars  of  many 
periods;  a  rich  inheritance  which  we 
owe  to  the  loving  care  of  our  fathers, 
and  which  it  is  our  duty  to  hand 
down  to  our  children  as  a  birthright 
of  which  no  trivial  bickerings,  no 
sectarian  differences  and  illiteracy, 
should  be  allowed  to  deprive  them. 

How  much  can  children  under- 
stand of  all  this?  How  far  can  they 
grasp  the  evolutionary  aspect  of  an- 
cient human  documents? 

[60] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

I  believe  they  can  grasp  it  very 
well.  Only  let  their  teachers  get  the 
right  point  of  view,  and  the  children 
will  experience  no  difficulty.  The 
difficulties  which  now  they  genuinely 
experience  are  quite  other  than  that, 
and  are  the  necessary  outcome  of  ! 
mistaken  modes  of  regarding  the 
documents  as  one  literal  and  me-  ^ 
chanical  scientific  treatise,  an  in- 
fallible record  of  physical  truth.  J 
Thus  regarded,  there  are  indeed 
things  that  puzzle,  and  things  that 
repel.  Orders  are  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Jehovah  which  emanate 
quite  naturally  from  a  priesthood, 
and  find  in  that  origin  an  ample  ex- 
planation. 

Neither  the  book  of  Nature  nor 
[61] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


i  the  book  of  human  History  can  be 
l  taken  at  its  face  value;  they  both  re- 
quire for  their  full  apprehension  a 
trained  mind  and  a  favorable  point 
of  view.  Seen  from  the  right  aspect, 
however,  both  are  luminous,  and  full 
of  the  energising  action  of  the  Di- 
vine Spirit. 

If  still  the  behaviour  of  the  Tribes 
in  the  Desert,  or  after  their  entry 
into  the  Promised  Land, — if  still  the 
behaviour  of  the  patriarchs  or  of  the 
best  among  the  kings, — is  puzzling 
and  inferior  to  what  we  might  have 
expected,  we  have  only  to  try  to 
realize  the  condition  of  the  average 
world  at  that  epoch.  Mankind 
emerging  from  savagery  must  for 
long  have  been  an  unlovely  spectacle, 
[62] 


PREPARATION  FOR  LITERATURE 

— fighting  and  tearing  and  sunk  in 
bestial  practices, — its  nascent  intelli- 
gence only  serving  to  bring  into 
greater  prominence  the  surviving  ele- 
ments of  ape  and  tiger,  to  make  the 
lusts  and  cruelties  more  awful.  In- 
finite, indeed,  must  have  been  the  pa- 
tience and  long-suffering  of  the 
Deity.  Out  of  such  a  world  the 
patriarchs  rise  as  majestic  figures, 
earnestly  striving  after  some  begin- 
nings of  an  approach  to  the  divine. 
An  Abraham  to-day  offering  up  his 
son  would  be  a  fanatic.  In  his  place 
and  time  it  was  an  act  of  faith. 
Agamemnon  similarly  offered  up  his 
daughter  Iphigenia.  It  was  an  act 
of  worship, — the  nascent  idea  of  sac- 
rifice. "Other  times,  other  man- 
[63] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


ners";  and  if  we  read  those  his- 
tories of  twenty  centuries  B.C.,  as  if 
they  took  place  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury A.D.,  we  shall  hopelessly  mis- 
read. 


[64] 


VII 
PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION 

BUT  it  does  not  follow  that  our 
condition  now  is  so  very  much 
better.  Better  it  is;  but,  looked  back 
upon  from  thirty  or  forty  centuries 
hence,  how  will  it  appear?  What 
will  posterity  think  of  our  violent 
social  inequalities,  of  our  squalor  and 
destitution,  of  our  slums,  work- 
houses, and  prisons,- — especially  of 
our  prisons?  I  believe  that  with  all 
our  motors  and  Dreadnoughts  and 
flying-machines,  we  shall  be  regard- 
ed for  the  most  part,  even  now,  as 
still  sunk  in  barbarism. 

To  us,  too,  have    been   accorded 
[65] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


brilliant  inspirations.  Prophets  and 
poets  have  been  vouchsafed  to  us. 
We,  too,  are  a  chosen  people,  and 
we  look  forward  to  a  world-wide  fed- 
eration of  the  English-speaking  race; 
but  in  spite  of  all  that  manifest  guid- 
ance and  enlightenment, — guidance 
as  by  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire, — 
our  national  conduct  is  still  dark, 
still  are  we  too  much  influenced  by  a 
surviving  savage  creed,  still  are  we 
essentially  thoughtless  and  cruel,  still 
far  from  the  precepts  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount.  Let  not  children  sup- 
pose that  in  detecting  the  faults  of  a 
bygone  generation  we  may  with  im- 
punity be  blind  to  our  own. 

But  the  leaven  is  working,  and  in 
the  future  dawns  a  great  hope.    The 
[66] 


PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION 

evils  and  ugliness  of  the  present  time 
have  in  them  all  a  note  of  prepara- 
tion, the  nineteenth  century  was  a 
period  of  strenuous  activity  of  which 
we  have  not  yet  begun  to  reap  the 
fruit.  The  old  placid  times  have 
given  place  to  a  restless  period  of 
materialistic  activity, — to  the  despair 
and  lamentation  of  some  of  our 
prophets, — but  the  end  is  not  yet. 

Even  so  a  country-side,  defaced 
and  bemired  by  the  litter  of  a 
builder's  yard,  looks  hopelessly 
spoiled,  and  may  fill  the  onlooker  of 
that  day  with  regret.  And  yet  in  due 
season,  when  the  building  shall  have 
been  erected, — the  palace,  the  ca- 
thedral, the  structure  of  use  and 
beauty, — the  note  of  preparation  in 
[67] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


the  previous  ugliness  will  be  clear, 
and  wisdom  will  be  justified  of  all 
her  children.  The  key-note  sound- 
ing through  the  history  of  the  human 
race  is  preparation, — preparation  for 
the  race  that  shall  be,  for  the  advent 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth. 

A  child  can  realize  this,  in  some 
sort,  for  he  himself  is  likewise  a 
preparation  for  the  future.  The  very 
universe  is  not  a  Being,  but  a  Be- 
coming; and  in  this  pregnant  saying 
of  antiquity, — which  may  be  regard- 
ed as  the  first  inspired  glimpse  of  the 
doctrine  of  evolution, — is  to  be  found 
the  clue  to  much  Divine  working,  the 
justification  of  the  ways  of  God  to 
men. 

Creation  is  not  a  momentary  but  a 
[68] 


PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION 

perennial  act.  Each  stage  in  it  is 
"good/'  has  a  goodness  of  its  own; 
no  stage  is  perfect.  Perfection  is  al- 
ways ahead,  improvement  is  always 
possible ;  and  it  has  at  length  become 
the  conscious  privilege  of  creatures 
to  assist  in  this  work  of  improve- 
ment. Nothing  can  be  so  inspiring 
to  a  human  being  as  the  idea  that  he 
is  of  value,  that  his  help  is  really 
wanted.  Nothing  can  so  enforce  the 
doctrine  of  responsibility  as  the 
realization  that  it  rests  with  us  to 
choose  whether  we  shall  mend  or 
mar,  shall  beautify  or  deface,  some 
portion  of  the  work. 

I  venture  to  say  that  the  creation 
of  free  and  responsible,  and  at  the 
same  time  noble  and  worthy,  beings, 
[69] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


who  go  right  not  because  they  are 
compelled,  but  because  they  choose, — 
not  because  they  must,  but  because 
they  will, — is  a  task  far  from  easy, 
even  to  omnipotence.  The  assistance 
of  every  agent  who  can  realize  his 
place  in  the  scheme  is  desired.  Else 
were  it  blasphemous  to  maintain  that 
there  was  ever  imperfection ;  else  the 
struggle  of  existence  were  a  fiction 
and  a  sham. 

This,  therefore,  at  bottom  accounts 
for  all  the  pain  and  sorrow  and  suf- 
fering that  is  not  man-made.  Most 
of  our  troubles  are  avoidable,  and 
are  due  to  human  selfishness  and  un- 
wisdom; but  some  are  not,  some  are 
inevitable, — brought  about,  as  the 
ancients  used  to  say,  by  the  gods. 
[70] 


PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION 

Even  so  it  is  with  all  great  works : 
the  end  when  fully  realized  is  seen 
to  justify  the  intermediate  stages.  In 
human  creations,  too,  the  element  of 
pain  is  not  absent,  its  presence  res- 
cues them  from  insipidity.  In  any 
noble  tragedy  the  suffering  is  felt 
to  be  worth  while.  "King  Lear/'  for 
instance,  is  a  work  of  pain  and  sor- 
row and  beauty.  To  achieve  the 
beauty,  the  pain  was  necessary,  and 
its  creator  thought  it  worth  while; 
he  would  not  have  it  otherwise,  nor 
would  we. 

Seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Creator,  all  the  pain  and  trouble  in 
the  world  is  either  remediable  by 
human  agents,  or  is  justified  and 
necessary;  it  is  worth  going  through, 
[71] 


PARENT  AND  CHILD 


in  view  of  the  glory  that  shall  be  re- 
vealed. This  long  drama  of  human 
history,  the  countless  aeons  of  pre- 
vious preparation  of  the  planet,  must 
have  been  all  worth  while.  And  thus 
the  bitter  cry  of  humanity  is  really 
a  message  of  hope.  The  beauty  and 
the  joy  that  now  we  realize  only  in 
moments  must  be  there  all  the  time, 
but  it  needs  all  the  preparation  for  its 
perception. 

Dark   is   the   world   to   thee:    thyself   art   the 
reason  why. 

Revelation  through  development, — 
that  is  the  message.  A  divine  reve- 
lation mast  be  gradual,  it  can  only 
be  given  to  man  as  he  can  receive  it. 
It  is  the  blindness  of  man  that  hin- 
[72] 


PREPARATION  FOR  RELIGION 

ders  the  revelation  of  God;  there  is 
no  other  hindrance.  We  live  in  the 
blinding  splendour  of  it,  even  now. 
Human  history  is  the  slow  and 
gradual  preparation  of  man  for  the 
divine  vision,  the  divine  message. 
The  message  is  sounding  all  the  time, 
— it  is  the  sense  that  is  wanting: 
"He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear." 

And  the  ear  of  man  can  not  hear,  and  the  eye 

of  man  can  not  see; 
But  if  we  could  see  and  hear,  this  Vision, — 

were  it  not  He? 


THE  END. 


[73] 


HOUR-GLASS 
STORIES 


THE  SANDALS 

By  REV.  ZELOTES  GRENELL.  A  beautiful  little  idyl 
of  sacred  story  dealing  with  the  sandals  of  Christ. 

THE  COURTSHIP  OF  SWEET 
ANNE  PAGE 

By  ELLEN  V.  TALBOT.  A  brisk  little  love  story 
incidental  to  "  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  full 
of  fun  and  frolic,  and  telling  of  the  Courtship  of 
Sweet  Anne  Page  by  three  rival  lovers  chosen  by 
her  father,  her  mother,  and  herself. 

THE  TRANSFIGURATION  OF 
MISS  PHILURA 

By  FLORENCE  MORSE  KINGSLEY.  This  clever  story  is 
based  on  the  theory  that  every  physical  need  and  every 
desire  of  the  human  heart  can  be  claimed  and  received 
from  the  "  Encircling  Good  "  by  the  true  believer. 

THE  HERR  DOCTOR 

By  ROBERT  MACDONALD.  A  novelette  of  artistic 
literary  merit,  narrating  the  varied  experiences  of 
an  American  girl  in  her  effort  toward  capturing  a 
titled  husband. 

ESARHADDON 

By  COUNT  LEO  TOLSTOY.  Three  allegorical  stories 
illustrating  Tolstoy's  theories  of  non-resistance,  and 
the  essential  unity  of  all  forms  of  life. 

Small  72mo,  Daintj  Cloth  Binding,  Illustrated. 
40  cents  each 

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NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


THE 


HOUR-GLASS 
STORIES 


THE  CZAR'S  GIFT 

By  WILLIAM  ORDWAY  PARTRIDGE.  How  freedom 
was  obtained  for  an  exiled  brother. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  OF 

MISS  SUSANA 

An  entrancing  love  story  that  ends  in  a  most 
romantic  marriage. 

THE  OLD  DARNMAN 

By  CM  AXLES  L.  GOODELL,  D.D.  A  character  known 
to  many  a  New  England  boy  and  girl,  in  which  the 
"  lost  bride  "  is  the  occasion  for  a  lifelong  search 
from  door  to  door. 

BALM  IN  GILEAD 

By  FLORENCE  MORSE  KINGS  LEY.  A  very  touch  ing 
story  of  a  mother's  grief  over  the  loss  of  her  child  of 
tender  years,  and  her  search  for  comfort,  which  she 
finds  at  last  in  her  husband's  loyal  Christian  faith. 

MISERERE 

BY  MABEL  WAGNALLS.  The  romantic  story  of  a 
sweet  voice  that  thrilled  great  audiences  in  operatic 
Paris,  Berlin,  etc. 

PARSIFAL 

BY  H.  R.  HA  win.  An  intimate  study  of  the  great 
operatic  masterpiece. 

THE  TROUBLE  WOMAN 

BY  CLARA  MORRIS.  A  pathetic  little  story  full  of 
heart  interest. 

Small  I2mt,  Daintj  Clolh  Binding,  Illustratid. 
jQ  ctnts  etch 

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NEW   YORK  AND  LONDON 


Vital  Help  "Toward  Body  Building 

Home  Gymnastics 

ACCORDING    TO    THE    LING    SYSTEM 
By  Prof.  ANDERS  WIDE,  M.D. 

This  system  of  gymnastics  has  been  de- 
signed on  strictly  scientific  principles,  and 
has  been  recognized  by  educators  throughout 
the  world  as  a  most  valuable  and  practical 
one.  Stockholm  has  long  maintained  a 
Royal  Gymnastic  Institute,  where  it  has 
been  taught  with  ever  increasing  efficiency 
since  1813.  The  system  has  met  with 
great  popularity  and  has  proved  adaptable 
as  a  home-culture  course.  The  object  of  this 
work  is  to  enable  any  one  to  put  into  practise 
the  principles  on  which  sound  physical 
health  may  be  gained  and  maintained. 

"A  manrelout  amount  of  information  of  a  most 
practical  character.'* — Neiv  York  Sun. 

UA  practical  handbook  for  horn*  use." — 
Detroit  Times. 

"This  little  book  is  thoroughly  commendable.** 
— Chicago  Record-Herald. 

11  It  is  a  little  book  of  great  value,  and  will  un- 
doubtedly be  useful  in  the  schools  and  to  business  and 
professional  persons." — Salt  Lake  Tribune. 

I2mo,  Cloth,    jo  centst  net ;  by  mail,  34  tents 

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Profit  and   Loss 
in  Man 

By  ALPHONSO  A.   HOPKINS,  Ph.D. 

The  New  Gospel  of  Patriotic,  Economic, 
and  Political  Common  Sense  on  the  Tem- 
perance Question.  The  most  up-to-date 
and  powerful  plea  for  Prohibition  upon 
purely  economic  grounds  that  has  been 
written  in  years.  It  is  calm  and  dispas- 
sionate, and  discusses  the  problem  from 
the  cold  matter-of-fact  standard  of  dollars 
and  cents. 

CONTENTS 


I.  The  Cost  of  a  Boy. 
II.  Boy  and  Bar. 

III.  Manhood  and  Law. 

IV.  Labor,  Liquor,  and 

Law. 

V.  Christian  Loyalty. 
VI.  Barabbas. 
VII.  Moral  and  Political 
Force. 


VIII.  Moral  Facts  and 

Political  Factors. 
IX.  Dictionary  Politics. 
X.  A  Curse,  a  Crime, 

and  the  Cure. 
XI.  Publicans  and  Re- 
publicans. 
XII.  Democrats  and 

Drink. 

XIII.  Methods  of  Settle- 
ment. 


"The  unique  idea  of  placing  temperance  on  a  commer- 
cial basis,  of  considering  the  difference  between  the  actual 
cash  value  of  a  man  who  drinks  and  the  man  who  abstains, 
is  intensely  interesting  and  profitable.  Prof.  Hopkins 
claims  that  each  young  man  twenty-one  years  of  age 
represents  a  cost  to  society  of  two  thousand  dollars 
($z,ooo).  Will  he  pay — will  he  '  make  good' — on  the 
investment  if  he  becomes  a  drinker?  That's  the  ques- 
tion !  In  the  United  States  are  one  and  a  half  millions 
of  drunkards — a  stupendous  loss  of  an  investment  aggre- 
gating over  five  billions  of  dollars  (£5, 000,000,000)." — 
Cumberland  Presbjterian,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

I2mo,  Cloth,  3j6  pp.     $l.2Oy  net  ,•  by  mail,  $1.32 
FUNK   &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY,   Pubs. 

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A  JUNIOR 
CONGREGATION 

A  CHILDREN'S  SERMON  APPROPRIATE  TO  EVERY  SUN- 
DAY OF  THE  YEAR,  TOGETHER    WITH    HINTS 
FOR  FORMING  A  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

By  JAMES  M.  FARRAR,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  tht    First    Reformed    Church,    Brooklyn,  and 

Minister  of  the  First   Organixed   Junior 

Congregation 

The  church-going  men  and  women  of  to- 
day were  the  church-going  children  of  their 
youth.  But  theirs,  most  likely  was  a  com- 
pulsory attendance.  This,  however,  is  the 
Children* s  Age.  More  time,  more  thought, 
more  energy  are,  in  this  generation,  given 
to  the  study,  development,  and  discipline  of 
children  than  has  ever  been  attempted  in 
any  past  century.  The  Children* s  Church 
is  being  organized  in  congregations  where 
the  children's  welfare  and  the  church's 
future  are  close  at  heart.  Children  in  such 
a  church  love  to  attend,  for  theirs  is  A 
Junior  Congregation  worshiping  with  the 
regular  congregation,  thus  forming  habits 
of  church-going  in  their  best  habit-forming 
years,  and  acquiring  a  familiarity  with  the 
church's  services  and  ordinances  that  will 
help  them  grow  into  sturdy  church  workers. 

I2mo,  Cloth,     fi.2O,  net;    by  mail,  $1.28 
FUNK   &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY,    Pubs. 

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"  Dr.  Burrcll  always  sounds  a  bugle-call  to  high 
emprise.  This  one  will  stir  whatever  of  knighthood 
is  active  or  latent  in  the  heart  of  the  young  man 
who  reads  it." — JOHN  BANCROFT  DEVINS,  Editor 
New  Tork  "Observer." 


THE  LURE 
OF  THE  CITY 

By  DAVID  JAMES  BURRELL,  D.D.,LL  D. 

Ptittr  tf  the   Marble   Ctlltgiatt   Church 
Niw    r.ri  City 

Addrest  to  "  the  youth  whose  lot  is  cast 
in  the  city  or  whose  heart  is  turned  that  way ; 
who  knows  himself  a  man,  and  with  eyes 
aloft  means  to  make  himself  a  better  one; 
who  plans  a  full  equipment,  that  he  may 
win  splendidly.*' — From  the  Preface. 

"  I  have  seldom  had  more  pleasure  than  I  have 
found  in  reading  Dr.  Burrcll' s  strong  and  suggestive 
book.  It  is  a  book  for  the  present  hour  and  the 
present  age.  In  a  style  singularly  lucid  and  wonder- 
fully attractive,  Dr.  Burrell  sets  forth  the  dangers  of 
the  city  on  the  one  hand  and  its  advantages  on  the 
other.  Each  of  the  twenty-two  chapters  might  stand 
by  itself  as  a  word  of  cheer,  a  bugle  call  or  a  warning. 
The  epithet  most  suitable  to  the  book,  as  a  whole,  is 
*  sane. '  Nothing  is  overstrained.  Everything  is 
practical,  and  the  book  is  thoroughly  manly,  and  is 
infused  throughout  with  the  author's  vigorous  and 
winning  personality.  It  is  emphatically  a  book  for 
the  young  man." — MARGARET  E.  SANGSTKR,  Editor 
•fthe  St.  Nicholas  Magazinet  New  York. 

I2tn0)  Cloth,      ff.oo,  net;  by  mail,  $1.08 
FUNK  &  WAGNALLS    COMPANY,   Pubs. 

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THE 
«  UNIVERSITY/7 


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